Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

Saturday, 26 February 2011

Dean of liberated detainees from Israeli prisons, Samir Kuntar stressed recent events in the region were the results of the achievements of the resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine. Kuntar was speaking to Al-Manar’s Website during the signing ceremony of his book “My Story” in Beirut on Friday.

“Events in the Region didn’t only relate to economic conditions, but also resulted from a series of achievements by the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine; as well as from “the stance of reluctance maintained by Syria over the past years,” Kuntar told the Website.

He added that the “Egyptians, for instance, had suffered from a hard economic situation during late leader Abdul Nasser’s rule, however they refused that he resigns.” Asked about recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, Kuntar called on revolutionists not to let history go backwards.

Egypt
On the Egyptian revolution, kuntar emphasized Egyptians should reconsider the Camp David agreement which led Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria to pay heavy prices.

“The Camp David Agreement led to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and inflicted heavy losses in Syrian army ranks; the Palestinian people became under siege amid difficult living conditions; numerous Lebanese areas were completely destroyed and thousands of people fell martyrs. The Egyptians should work promptly to relieve us of the burden of the Camp David Agreement,” Kuntar stressed.

Tunisia
Referring to the Tunisian people, kuntar said they were major element of Arab interdependence, to embrace the Palestinian uprising and stand by it.

However, “the revolution’s leadership was not worthy of the Tunisians who must be clear and decisive about its movement. Tunis should be the basis and the goal. The Tunisians should protect the Arab path and rights, especially the Palestinian cause,” he stated.

Libya
Kuntar expressed belief that Moammar Gaddafi will be toppled eventually and will pay for his crimes. “Accomplishing this might take a longer time than it took the Egyptians to topple Hosni Mubarak because Gaddafi – the tyrant - has nothing to lose, after he lost his money and power.”

Saudi Arabia
Kuntar said that recent reforms in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia were superficial and short-term ones. “This is not about salaries; there is a strong link between the political reality and the economic situation. Protection should be provided for a people through safeguarding it from economic violations and consolidating this sector so as not to be dependent on the World Bank and Western countries.”

“This requires an interrelated stance on the nation’s causes and supporting the major one, i.e. the Palestinian cause,” he emphasized.

Galilee Equation
On the equation of liberating occupied Galilee declared by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Nasrallah two weeks ago, Kuntar said he strongly believed that “when Sayyed Nasrallah speaks about a certain equation, it means that it is certainly ready for execution, not just a plan.”

Netanyahu
Pointing out to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s weak response to Sayyed Nasrallah’s declaration, Kuntar said: “Let him try and we will see. Sharon said in past that he (Sayyed Nasrallah) will never be able to capture any Israeli soldiers, but he (Sayyed Nasrallah) did. When I was in prison, he (Sharon) said that Samir will not get out, but I’m here now,” the released detainee said with a laugh.

Samir Kuntar was known as the dean of liberated prisonersfor spending more than 30 years in the Israeli jails. He was liberated in 2007, after long indirect negotiations with the Israeli entity following the July 2006 war on Lebanon.

Tony Blair ( and G.W. Bush)
told us that Saddam Hussein has had"Weapons of Mass Destruction"
and then ,five years later, Colonel Qaddafi
got rid of his own factory ofWeapons of Mass Destruction.
(which he has bought from the same UK and US)
and then ,10 years later now ,
we still did not see theWeapons of Saddam !!

In the meantime ,
Tony Blair and G.W. Bush
have hanged Saddam Hussein
and five months later
Tony went to Libya and kissed Colonel Qaddafi
and has spent the night in his tent............
( I do not know whether together , or not )

Tonight we find out
that the so-called-Dictator did not reside in Baghdad
and that Blair and Bush have hanged the wrong man.......
and that Blair and Bush have offered an amnesty
to the wrong-but-real-dictator.

The difference was that, the hanged-so-called-dictator
did send his rockets once on the State of Zion
while the forgiven-but-real-dictators never did !!

Wait until Blair and Bush hear that Qaddafi has hada Jewish-mother................!!
(They might, then, even send a Sub-marine to save him)

History is taking a new turn in the Middle East and so is the Arab-Israeli conflict.

By Dr. Ashraf Ezzat / Staff Writer

“I have not yet ordered the use of force, not yet ordered one bullet to be fired … when I do, everything will burn.” .. Shouted Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, and pounded his fist in a furious speech to the Libyan people.

He referred to the Libyan protesters who called for his stepping down from office as stray dogs, rats and drugged youth, he even went so far as to follow the American vogue trend and amusingly alleged that this uprising was orchestrated by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

For anyone who’s not familiar with Gaddafi or haven’t seen or heard him talk, this might come as a total shock for what came in that speech and the rude and threatening tone in which it was delivered represented the ultimate paranoia and detachment from reality any dictator could reach. Even the Arabs and Libyans familiar with Gaddafi have also been stunned by his outrageous and humiliating words.

Haunted by the successful ousting of the leaders of two neighboring countries of Egypt and Tunisia, Gaddafi has already set up his mind not to follow in the footsteps of Zine Elabedine or Mubarak. Contemplating the scenarios of the two uprisings, He reached one conclusion and one conclusion only; he would not make any concessions nor start a dialogue with the protesters.

The Libyan leader has decided to show no leniency in dealing with this uprising – which he never saw it coming his way- he relentlessly began to crack down on protesters allowing his paramilitary and mercenary forces to use live ammunition in a desperate attempt to crush the revolt leaving thousands wounded and dead so far.

Historical changes

The uprising of the Libyan people is bound to succeed; it is only a matter of time before another Arabic tyrant falls down in the convulsing Arabic countries in North Africa & the Middle East.
And as the unprecedented images of the millions of Egyptian protesters swarming Tahrir Square in Cairo gave the world the truest picture of people longing for free and dignified life, the Gaddafi’s pathetic speech and his crimes against the Libyans gave the perfect example of a dictator with delusions of grandeur nearing utter insanity.

Gaddafi’s harsh reaction to the uprising has evoked worldwide resentment and contempt of the Libyan regime which in a rare and historical moment of truth has been stripped off its fake patriotic masquerade and exposed its stark contempt and exploitation of the Libyan people for the entire world to see.

Arab popular uprisings

The Arab world is witnessing historical changes nowadays; it has proven beyond most political analysts and observers` expectations, no one has clearly seen this coming. As a matter of fact, there Were some speculations of upheavals and uprisings across the Middle East but they were expected to erupt amongst the economically underprivileged communities, as there has been speculated in Egypt with this reiterated talk amongst the intelligentsia of what they called “revolution of the hungry”

To everybody’s amazement, the Arab people- in Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia – did not revolt against the ruling regimes out of economic and political grievances only but mainly out of a deeply rooted sense of humiliation, contempt and injustice by autocratic and self-serving regimes.

The people who were marching in Tunisia or Bahrain were neither starving nor homeless, they were the middle class taking to the streets, camping out on squares, bleeding on the streets and even willing to die on the streets for one cherished goal of change. The change in the Arab world means dealing with a lot of socio-economic grievances but change in the broader sense means changing the way those Arab people have been ruled in the last decades.

Regardless of what some observers are saying of a conspiracy theory behind this expanding phenomenon and the alleged covert role of the American CIA or Israeli Mossad in these uprisings, the thing that sounded absolutely ridiculous and rather offending to the young generations steering this heroic uprisings and who have been totally underrated for their abilities to spark a new dawn over the political horizon of the region, these uprisings proved that those same American and Israeli covert policies in their close support and collaboration with most dictatorships in the Arab world are to be partly blamed for lingering and maintaining such regimes in power knowing how much corrupt they have been.

Israel, as a Middle Eastern nation and being in conflict with the Arab world, has substantially benefited from decades of neighboring dictatorships oppressing the Arab people and denying them their true demands and aspirations, after all Israel is an oppressive regime and a military dictatorship whose aims runs counter to most arab people’s and which acted with more audacity in an environment of surrounding and lingering political dictatorships.

For decades the Arab people ached and felt for their Palestinian brothers and their political right to their homeland, but there was not much they could do, with all this corrupt and backstage policy by corrupt and traitorous regimes. Israel has been able to illegally grab most of Palestine’s land but at the same time failed to hijack the all Arabs’ dream of free Palestine. The Arab voices always wanted free Palestine and liberated Jerusalem; this is the actual Arab street policy.

The Arab-Israeli game

After being internationally recognized as a new nation amidst Arab countries in 1948 and in order to serve its aggressive and expansionist policy in Palestine, Israel needed time-more than anything else- to make those new Zionist geo-political findings as facts on the ground and nothing seemed to serve those end goals better than ever new Israeli aggressions, strong and blind support from the united states and backstage deals with authoritarian and corrupt Arab rulers, whom while trying to guarantee their grip on power, were willing to give Israel more than she even asked for.

Arab rulers gave Israel the long peace and quiet on the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, they gave her the normalization of political relations with Tel Aviv offered by many capitols in the Arab world from Doha/Qatar in the east to Rabat/Morocco in the far west and even some of the corrupt negotiators of the Palestinian authority have offered to give Israel unbelievable concessions regarding the hot topics of the west bank and East Jerusalem thus denying millions of Palestinians the right to return to their homeland as revealed lately by the Palestine papers leaked by Aljazeera.

Egyptian Revolution

These Arabic uprisings are obviously grassroots movements gaining momentum by the power of the people all across the Arab world, no country is considered immune from this revolutionary tide in the Middle East as expectations have been growing that the strong wind of change would reach as far as Damascus and Tehran.

Amidst that unprecedented tide of change Israel is caught up in amazement with her ongoing plan for inciting another American military suicide in Iran undeterred and covering the whole west bank with settlements shamefully uninterrupted by the white house.

Part of the rage displayed by the people in these uprisings is at the Israeli aggression and the crimes committed against their Palestinian brothers as one of the major and obvious demands of the Egyptian January 25th revolution is to stop exporting the Egyptian crude natural gas to Israel in a clear message that urges the Egyptian government to stop supporting and collaborating with the occupying and aggressive Zionist regime.

The Arabic street is the one who is calling the shots now, the coming Arab policies will try and reflect the pulse of the Arabic street. The united Arab sounds are to be heard at last where no American veto could come out to obliterate the truth and where no need to waste more than one million innocent Arabs to allegedly get rid of a dictator.

It is time for the Palestinian intifada to spread beyond the borders of Palestine. It is time for Arab solidarity to come into action and effect and for pan-Arabism to be revived again; it is time for the Arab-Israeli conflict to be conducted by regimes that won’t sell out the Palestinian cause in secret.

All the Arab authoritarian regimes like that of Gaddafi will soon come to an end; history is taking a new turn in the Middle East and so is the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel’s bargain with corrupt Arab dictatorships is over. These corrupt regimes have given Israel the greatest gifts of all, namely time to allow and fortify the Zionist expansion on the ground. The time out for Israel in the Arab-Israeli game is over. Another round is soon to begin with hopefully new rules.

In a desperate effort aimed at obliterating and liquidating the Palestinian refugees' plight, which is actually the heart and essence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israeli and Zionist propagandist have been speaking of a paralleled Jewish refugee problem.

The mouthpieces of lie shamelessly speak of hundreds of thousands of Jewish "refugees" who we are told were forced to leave the Arab world after the creation of the evil entity called Israel.

Obviously, the logic behind the dissemination of these brash lies is to create an impression that the Palestinian refugee problem had an equivalent and symmetrical Jewish refugee problem. Eventually, the Zionist liars would want to convince us that the Jewish refugee problem invalidates any special legitimacy attached to the enduring Palestinian refugee cause.

These claims, of course, are nothing but contemptible lies and distortion of history.

After all, the arrival of the "Arab Jews" in Israel was meticulously planned, plotted, induced, expedited and carried out by Zionist circles, including the Israeli intelligence services.

In some cases, hefty bribes were paid to certain Arab government officials to agree to allow their Jews to leave for Israel. In other countries, like in Iraq, Zionist agents employed terrorism to foster an atmosphere of fear among Jews in order to force them into leaving.

Synagogues were bombed and threats were made in order to communicate the message to Jews, that "your safety is at stake and that you have to leave before it is too late."

"I am not saying that relations between Jews in Arab countries and their Arab compatriots were exemplary, especially after the creation of the racist entity." However, it is historically established that many if not most of the rumors about "impending pogroms" and other acts of discrimination against Jews were purposeful propaganda originating in Israeli intelligence circles.

Naeim Giladi, an elderly Iraqi Jew living in New York, described rather vividly how Israeli agents orchestrated a deliberate campaign of intimidation aimed at forcing Iraqi Jews to leave their ancestral country. He also described in meticulous details the humiliating and sub-human treatment Jews from the Middle East received at the hands of the Ashkenazi authorities once they were brought into Israel.

In addition, the "ingathering" of Jews from all over the world was and still is the ultimate goal of Zionism. In other words, the ingathering of Jews was more than just a desired goal of Zionism; it was a monomaniacal obsession that nothing was allowed to stand in its way. If so, how can these paragons of lie speak of hundreds of thousands of poor Jewish refugees uprooted from their homes in the Arab world? That is more than just a scandalous distortion of historical facts; this is tantamount to fornicating with the facts of history.

In the final analysis, there can be no equation between a deliberate, premeditated ethnic cleansing of an entire people from their historical homeland, in which wide-scale massacres, such as Dir Yasin, were committed, and the planned and nearly orderly evacuation of Arab Jews to Israel in order to fulfill Zionism?

Of course, we are dealing with sick and depraved people who are not prone to logic or reason since they are bereft of honesty, a word that doesn't exist in the lexicon of Zionism.

It is this depravity and sickness of the mind that make Zionist circles instruct some Jews in some Western countries, such as France, US, Britain, and Canada, to scrawl anti-Semitic graffiti in places with Jewish concentrations in order to intimidate Jews and get them to emigrate to Israel in order to steal Palestinian homes and land.

For them, everything, including truth, must be sacrificed for the sake of Zionism and Israel. This is why, their depravity is limitless and mendacity knows no bounds.

Indeed, trying to equate the violent extirpation of the bulk of the Palestinian people from their ancestral land on the one hand, and the carefully-planned evacuation of Arab Jews in order to effect and fulfill Zionism, on the other, is very much tantamount to trying to equate marriage and rape, or between willful emigration and expulsion.

Hence, Zionist efforts to concoct a Jewish refugee problem to counter the Palestinian refugee plight should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

More to the point, the so-called Jewish refugees were eventually transformed into willing or unwilling thieves. They were housed in houses whose proprietors still carried their keys, hoping to return home sooner than later.

They were made to "possess" gardens, fields, orchards and plots of land that belonged to another people. Even petty possessions, such as furniture and livestock, which had belonged to Palestinian refugees, were arrogated by these so-called Jewish refugees.

The fact that these Jews maintained and sought to perpetuate this state of theft in no way implies that legitimacy has been gained. A theft remains a theft even after the passage of 62 years.

"I don't deny that Jews left homes and businesses and other property back in the Arab world. However, emigrants who have left property in their former countries have no right whatsoever to compensate for their abandoned or lost property by stealing or arrogating another people's property in their new adopted country. That is both illegal and immoral. It is also criminal, pure and simple."

None the less, complete justice ought to be given to both Palestinian refugees and Jews who had left possessions and property back in their countries of origin.

The Palestinians must be allowed to return home and be compensated and Jews, if they so wish, should likewise be allowed repatriation and compensation.

In fact, repatriation and indemnification are both established by the UN General Assembly in the famous resolution 194. So there should be no argument about other legal factors inhibiting the implementation of the Palestinian right of return.

As to Arab Jews and their descendants, they should have the courage to demand repatriation and compensation instead of perpetuating the theft of land and property that belong not to them.

In any case, such a decision would require a high degree of rectitude and moral commitment. This is why it is unlikely that it will ever see the light of the day willingly.

But that decision would have to be taken Willy nilly, even under duress. History is a great leveler.

When the US marines were in and out of Lebanon in 1983-1984 some of those I met, when visiting their barracks with American journalist Janet Stevens, to discuss Israel’s use of American cluster bombs against civilians had the habit, as did sailors from the USS New Jersey, of referring to the Lebanese Capital simply as “Root.” Or sometimes they would call it: “The Root” as in, “We came to “The Root” to kick some butt!”

The Marines were responsible for unexploded ordnance clearance in the area around Beirut airport while Italian, French and a small British force worked in adjoining areas of West Beirut, following the Israeli siege, which sometimes included intensive carpet shelling. The Marines did a good job in their area trying to make it safe for civilians and took 12 casualties, two fatal, from Israeli dropped American cluster bombs.

Unfortunately President Reagan ordered the American forces to support the Israeli backed Phalange government of Amin Gemayel against the popular Lebanese resistance and the marines were soon viewed as being partisan participants in a domestic conflict. This led to the Marines departure following events of October 1983 and despite recent Israeli proposals, it is fairly unlikely that either American or NATO forces will arrive in Lebanon anytime soon.

But Blackwater USA just might.

Despite a series of publicly announced “disassociations” periodically issued from the media offices at the Pentagon and State Department, plus a couple of image polishing name changes including currently, Xe Services LLC ( Xe being short for Xena, the mythical goddess of war) the hydra headed Blackwater (BW), founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark is still quite active.

BW continues to sign US tax payer funded contractswhilst spreading its tentacles around the region, ever scanning the horizon and sniffing out softer underbelly money makers to meet the payroll of its $500 per day operatives.

Prince told the US Congress last year that his organization is “A professional organization serving as a solutions provider to the U.S. government. We operate in the defense, training, logistics, and intelligence spaces, priding ourselves on getting the job done right”.

Two weeks ago in Leidschendam-Voorburg, which abuts The Hague and is the site of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Blackwater USA representatives looking to land a lucrative bounty hunter contract with the STL’s registrar’s office, preferred to label Hezbollah simply as ‘Bullahs’. Apparently it’s some sort of BW macho lingo term from the organizations combat training bases in North Carolina and California. Some Blackwater mercenaries also used the “Bullahs” label in Iraq in addition to racist terms like “Ragheads”, “Hajiis”, and “Sand Niggers.”

In addition, Black water representatives, presumably offering “to get the job done right,” have reportedly met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and will again during Barak’s current visit to Washington.

According to an email message from a Congressional Staffer who works for a Committee that receives intelligence briefings, BW has been getting cozy with Israel and may be in the process of setting up a BW “training center” in occupied Palestine north of Kabri which is about 20 miles south of UNIFIL’s HQ in Naqoura along the Lebanon-Palestine ‘blue line’. Barak, according to the same source, will meet on February 26 with National Security chief Tom Donilon and Dennis Ross to discuss Iran, Hezbollah the STL and the impact of recent regional events on the Israeli-Iranian strategic balance in the region.

During his meetings with BW representatives his message to BW may be along the lines of “Hey, don’t worry. We’ll hold your coats” as Israel increasingly considers following the American lead and hires mercenaries to confront its enemies.

Barak may in point of fact have a job for BW.

Based on sources who attended the recent Special Tribunal for Lebanon media briefings, as well as sources in Congress and North Carolina, it appears that the STL Registrar’s 1/17/11 announcement that the Court might be seeking help of the International community to arrest and deliver to the Hague those against whom Judge Daniel Frensen is widely expected to issue arrest warrants, is indeed generating applications.

Following the STL’s implied job announcement, Blackwater’s HQ, still based in Moyock, North Carolina was abuzz with talk of “business opportunities.” According to a stringer for the Daily Southerner in nearby Tarboro, NC, who claims that she dates “BW special forces guys”: “Who better to go after the terrorists with arrest warrants from that Court than our local Confederate bounty hunters par excellence?”

By the morning of 1/20/11 and again on 1/21/11, Blackwater representatives, who arrived two days earlier in The Hague on a flight from Israel, tried to convince the Office of the STL Registrar, and, that evening, anyone listening in the nearby Hilton Hotel Grand Café Pearl, that Blackwater could do the job better than Interpol. All they needed to know was that the proposed per head bounty dollar amount was guaranteed and they would do the rest.

After a dinner of pan fried wild sea bass and enjoying bottles of German wine, the more they drank and partied, which reportedly lasted until the wee hours, the more the Blackwater reps claimed to actually relish a long overdue fight with “Bullahs.” One BW operative, according to two Dutch journalists who were present for part of the evening, told the groups ”tourist hostess” attractive dates, “ when even one of them “Bullahs” needs to get his butt busted, cuffed, and dragged to the Hague, we can do the job young ladies! Ya got our word on that!”

Will Blackwater help I reoccupy Lebanon?

Ehud Barak’s statements this week about Israel reoccupying south Lebanon might lead some to muse whether the Defense Minister perhaps forgotwhy, when he was prime minister, he ordered the precipitous Israeli nighttime stealth pullout, during which some local villagers claim they saw some elements of the Golani brigade literally skidding down the hill at Maron al Ras during the night of May 23, 2000 on their back sides as other IDF units fled across the exits points south of Aita Schab and Bint Jbeil with resistance fighters hot on their tails.

In fact the reason then Israeli Prime Minister Barak ordered the IDF out of Lebanon, was partially under electoral pressure from the Israeli public, because Israeli casualties were skyrocketing. Barak also acted on the advice of his well-paid campaign advisor and Bill Clinton confidant, James Carville who advised Barak that ‘moderate Israelis’ would vote for him if he did. As it turned out James underestimated the number of ‘moderate Israelis’, and Barak lost the election by a wide margin to Ariel Sharon who got 1,698,077 (62.39%) to Barak’s 1,023,944 (37.61%).

“Funny Jimmy” as he’s known in the Big Easy where he grew up, returned to the “James Carville and Mary Matlin show.” Not one to easily give up on lost causes, it is being rumored in Washington that James, the apparent eternal devotee of Le and La Clinton, is spending much of his time these days trying to figure out how to get Hilary elected President and he is studying the odds for the 2012 Democratic primary. Carville, and others including remnants of his former campaign team in Israel, see the possibility of the Democrats dumping Obama, as doable if former IDF reservist, Rahm Emanuel, the new Mayor of Chicago, will dump Obama, sign on with Hilary, and bring the US Israeli lobby and their cash with him.

In his free time James is working as an adman for Miracle Whip in a TV commercial which features “ Funny Jimmy” Carville and others expressing either their love or hate for the imitation mayonnaise spread. "If you've got these fancy, dancy mustards and stuff like that, that's kind of an elite thing," says Carville. "Miracle Whip is the essence of America. We are a simple people, very trusting and only wanting to do God’s will."

Contrary to the Israeli lobby spin that Israel left Lebanon in May of 2000 as a unilateral goodwill gesture to advance the fake “peace process”, IDF statistics leading up to Hezbollah’s expulsion of the IDF and the collapse of its collaborationist South Lebanese Army (SLA) match those explained recently by Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General, former chemistry professor Naim Qassim who is perhaps the leading expert on exactly what transpired in South Lebanon during this period. Professor Qassim’s book, “Hezbollah from Within” is the most authoritative volume on the subject of Hezbollah…to date.

Also, Israeli TV audiences had grown weary of watching footage-often courtesy of Al Manar, of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon as a result of Resistance operations. Even today, fighters who were on the scene in the spring of 2000, report that they were surprised at the Israeli debacle as were the Israeli SLA Lebanese collaborators.

In some instances, retreating Israeli soldiers used their former Lebanese “partners and brothers” as human shields hoping that the Lebanese resistance would not fire on fellow Lebanese as the Israelis fled. The IDF did not inform their SLA allies that they were withdrawing.﻿

Lebanese south army wait to enter Israel on May 23, 2000 to be given refugee
status. Because there was no time to examine each car coming into Israel
for fear of a Hizbullah counter attack,the Israeli government did not allow the
Lebanese to bring their automobiles into Israel.
They literally came with the clothes on their back.

﻿ Ever hopeful of igniting a civil war in Lebanon, the new IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Israeli intelligence meticulously left behind lists of the names of many of its Lebanese collaborators, hoping for a Lebanese-Lebanese bloodbath. As it turned out Hezbollah quickly, and some say reluctantly, instructed their units to adhere to a strict policy or no retribution and to “let bygones be bygones.”

Only modest punishment was administered by the Lebanese State Judiciary partly because the number of Israeli (US taxpayer) paid killers was high and there was not enough prison space to house them and also because Hezbollah wanted to avoid sectarian strife since a large percentage of the collaborators were from one Lebanese sect and cries of “sectarian targeting” were predictable. The issue of whether Hezbollah was too lenient with these collaborators following the expulsion of the IDF is, eleven years later, still sometimes discussed in Southern villages among families who lost loved ones to the turncoats.—many of the latter living today, as next door neighbors to their victims’ families.

If the STL does decide to hire Blackwater USA to execute any arrest warrants in Lebanon or if Israel decides to hire ”seek and kill” Blackwater units during its predicted coming invasion, whatever that does for Xe’s Stock prices, its BW’s stock of mercenaries that will be eagarly anticipated in Lebanon.

As for Baraks boast that the new IDF Chief Benny Gantz “knows south Lebanon” the career assassin might want to recall, as he remembers why Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May of 2000, that as one Hezbollah veteran told this observer this week, “South Lebanon knows Benny Gantz”.

He is working with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign in Lebanon on drafting legislation which, after 62 years, would, if adopted by Lebanon’s Cabinet and Parliament grant the right to work and to own a home to Lebanon’s Palestinian Refugees. One part of the PCRC legislative project is its online Petition which can be viewed and signed at: petitiononline.com/ssfpcrc/petition.html. fplamb@palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.

Franklin Lamb’s book on the Sabra-Shatila Massacre, International Legal Responsibility for the Sabra-Shatila Massacre, now out of print, was published in 1983, following Janet’s death and was dedicated to Janet Lee Stevens. He was a witness before the Israeli Kahan Commission Inquiry, held at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in January 1983.
Please check our website for UPDATES:http://www.palestinecivilrightscampaign.org/

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- A French site which specialises in security affairs said that there are discussions taking place between different European security parties to start a new European security plan which aims to strengthen the Fatah authority security in Ramallah and support it to strengthen its security grip on the West Bank and to restore its authority in the Gaza Strip to strike at the Hamas security and military capability.

The plan which was discussed by the representatives at the EU Political and Security Committee is based on restructuring the European security missions to the Palestinian occupied territories to enhance the capabilities of Abbas’s security forces to be able to deal with Hamas.

The center for journalistic studies and analysis quoted the French site as saying that the plan includes the merging of the European police mission with European border officials who are residing in Askalan, without diminishing the responsibilities of either mission.

It added that the restructuring of the missions will help restructure Abbas’s security forces which are fighting Hamas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to facilitate the move to the new “Palestinian state”.

The new planned security mission will take the responsibilities for training PA police and control security at the Rafah border crossing and any new Gaza border-crossings.

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Five Palestinian demonstrators were injured by rubber-coated bullets and four foreign activists were arrested on Friday afternoon when IOF troops tried to quell a peaceful demonstration to protest the continued closure of Martyrs Street in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil.

Eyewitnesses told PIC that the IOF troops fired teargas, sound bombs and rubber-coated bullets at the demonstrators and physically assaulted a number of demonstrators who included a number of national dignitaries and foreign sympathizers.

The peaceful demonstration turned into a confrontation between the armed occupation troops and the demonstrators who hurled stones at the troops, IOF snipers took position on rooftops and the area was declared a closed military zone. There were also rumours that there were special forces who infiltrated the demonstration.

The demonstrators called for the opening of the Martyrs Street which has been closed by the IOF for the past 17 years after the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in February 1994 which was committed by an American Jewish settler.

The IOF troops assaulted Dr. Mustafa al-Barghouthi, who is the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- Abbas’s militia kidnapped seven Hamas supporters in various parts of the West Bank, while the same militia continue to hold and torture two men from al-Khalil, according to local sources on Friday.

In the Jenin district, Abbas’s militia kidnapped the former representative of the Islamic bloc at the Najah University, Muhammad Jaradat, who is from the village of Zboba and was kidnapped from his workplace in Jenin city.

Sources close to Jaradat’s family said that he appeared at the Jenin magistrates court where his detention was extended to 15 days for interrogation.

Jaradat was the representative of the Islamic students bloc at Najah University for the year 2006-2007. He was kidnapped by Abbas’s militia at the end of 2009 and was held for nearly five months. After his release he was kidnapped by the IOF.

He was only released about a month ago after spending seven months at Mageddo priosn.

In al-Khalil district, Abbas’s militia kidnapped Karam al-Hashlamone after raiding his house in the city of al-Khalil.

In the Nablus district, the militia kidnapped Hajj Said Dweikat along with his brother Abdul-Rahim after raiding their home in the village of Balata. Abdul-Rahim was later released, but Said was detained although he was detained and tortured by the same militia on previous occasions.

The militia also kidnapped Najah University student Muhammad Asida from the village of Tal. He was kidnapped before by the same militia and was also a captive in occupation jails.

The militia also kidnapped Najah University stundent Mu’taz al-Khawaja, from the village Nilin to the west of Ramallah. He was detained previously by the same militia on several occasions.

Meanwhile, the IOF kidnapped the two Beir Zeit University students Muhammad al-Qaddoumi and Muhammad Jumaa, both of whom are affiliated with the Islamic bloc.

Abbas’s militia, meanwhile, are still holding former captive in occupation jails Ishak Zaghir from al-Khalil after ten days of his kidnapping and the militia refuses to tell his family where he is being held.

The family of Yaser Rabba’ from Yatta and who is being held by Abbas’s militia said that their son is being subjected to the most severe forms of torture.

On February 17, 2011 – Dr. Finkelstein spoke at Kitchner’s Trinity United Church. In his speech Dr. Finkelstein covered topics ranging from the 2000 and 2006 Israeli wars in Lebanon and their resulting defeats at the hands of Hezbollah, the 2008 22 day massacre in Gaza, the summer 2010 Freedom Flotilla raid, the potential coming third war with Lebanon and the consequences, for Israel, of the recent revolts shaking the Arab World, particularly Egypt. This was Dr. Finkelstein’s first visit to Kitchner-Waterloo since 2003 when he faced the Jewish hacklers at the Campus (watch a video of that event below).

Dr. Finkelstein believes that though the current protests in the Middle East are providing Arabs to breathe fresh air of dignity but they have not materialized into revolutions as yet. . He cautioned the anti-government protesters to beware of western imperialist intentions of hijacking the current turmoil to install more pro-western regimes.

“Israel’s perennial strategy has been to create fear among the Arab people. Israel’s strategy is now threatened, Finkelstein said – not because a democratic Egypt would rescind its 1979 peace treaty or because the Arabs would attack Israel. No – Egypt was satisfied to get the Sinai back, so it will not initiate a war. What threatens Israel is that the fear factor is no longer there,” said Dr. Finkelstein.

“In May 2000 Hezbollah successfully evicted the Israeli forces occupying southern Lebanon. As a result, Israel feared that its “deterrence capacity” – its ability to instill fear – had been compromised. So it started planning the next round of engagement with Hezbollah. The pretext for a re-engagement with Hezbollah came in the summer of 2006. Israel then unleashed 34 days of massive destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure and killed 1200 people,” said Finkelstein.

In order to boost the morale of a defeated Jewish army, Tel Aviv started a new wave of terror (Operation Cast Lead) against the 1.5 million Palestinian traped inside tiny Gaza Strip, Finkelstein believes.
Thomas Walkom, a columnist with Canadian daily Toronto Star wrote about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s fixation on Israel on February 19, 2011 – that his government insists being more Israeli than Israelis themselves.

“It’s worth noting that the Canadian Jewish Congress, which is second to none in attacking anti-Semitism, did not complain to Mohawk. Bernie Farber, the Congress’ chief executive, confirmed that to me this week,” wrote Thomas Walkom.

Dr. Norman Finkelstein (born 1953) is considered an authority on Holocaust and Jewish occupation of Palestine. He received PhD in political science from Princeton University and taught at DePaul University till 2007 when he was forced to leave the campus under pro-Israel Jewish academic lead by Dr. Alan Dershwitz. Both his father Zacharias Finkelstein and mother Maryla Husyt were survivors of Warsaw ghetto. Both of them died in 1995.

Irgun, the army of Rahm Emanuel's father, is short for Irgun Zvai Leumi-
"National Military Organization" in Hebrew, was a terrorist Zionist
group that operated in Palestine, killing innocent Palestinians
and British soldiers; blowing up buildings

As Israel carries out their illegal US funded attacks on civilian populations in Gaza, we look back at the origin of Israel, which is rooted in violence and racism; and the video, Who Were the First Terrorists in the Middle East?

When Gilad Atzmon sent this video across from London today I watched it and shook my head. For me the information isn’t all new but it is enlightening and equally suited for those of us in the know as well as people who are just opening their eyes to Israel’s insane, cruel and needless pattern of violence and cruelty and massive war crimes.

The west has been under a spell for decades, dismissing the real history, meaning and implications of Israel; blindly accepting and funding and protecting what truly is a rogue government without question or delay.

Israel, most unfortunately, is guided by a philosophy that they are more entitled. Israel’s approach to resolving real and perceived problems, as I have written before, is similar to gangland mentality where the biggest guns and sharpest knives, are used to decide the outcome of a situation.

Fortunately, everyone in Israel doesn’t believe in ‘Zionism’; the concept that Jewish people are allowed to take land from other human beings because ‘God gave it to them’.

This philosophy burdens not just Muslim and Christian people who live in occupied Palestine, but also Israeli citizens who speak out against the politicized, violent version of Judaism that Israel represents.

Today Israel is defined by its acts of state sponsored terrorism. As this video reveals, the story dates back to Israel’s very first days.

Things are often not how they seem, and as Egypt’s quest for Revolutionary freedom glows, we receive word that an Israeli bomb has just injured 15 people in Gaza.

Israel is such a terrible player in the world political arena; they are deadly and murderous and prejudice and they cross national borders to conduct military action with impudence; as if beyond reproach.

This is the same group that has been killing the people of Palestine in a cold blooded manner for over sixty years. They must be stopped.

We do wonder if the Israelis are targeting our friends in Gaza who are in the ground putting the news out in real time; people like Ken O’Keefe, our writer who Israel branded a ‘terrorist’ after the deadly incident involving the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara which was attacked by Israel in the dark with murderous intent.

Nine men were killed, one was American, they were all unarmed.

Ken O’Keefe and others overpowered Israeli commandos and disarmed them, taking them captive. To what end? Ken and the other unarmed peace activists protected the captured Israeli soldiers and gave them medical attention. Then they were released.

If only Israel played the same way. I am so sick and tired of hearing Muslim people referred to as terrorists when no place in modern history can even slightly compete with Israel’s record number of terrorism events.

This video shows how from the beginning, Israel has only represented death and violence to the world. Nobody denies the fact that Jewish people suffered during the Holocaust, but anyone who accepts their current behavior certainly should equally agree with Hitler’s quest, at least in concept.

There is no race or culture that is entitled to more than another. The world should not be governed by religious concepts or hate.

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com’s Executive News Editor. As News Editor,Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 76 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

The standoff between the United States and Pakistan over the arrest of contractor Raymond Davis is not going to be solved unless both nations take a step into that “no man’s land” of trust and honesty. There is no question about diplomatic status, this was a clumsy mistake made by State Department officials in Washington who had little or no understanding of the legal and political issues at stake. Recent admissions that Davis is “CIA” mean nothing. Nobody knows what “CIA” means anymore, not since the wave of privatization that has spread to many of America’s critical security functions.

Were America honest in this, it would admit the truth. The CIA and State Department leaders had no idea Davis was in Pakistan or what he was doing. During the Bush era, duplicate lines of command were created that are still in place. Projects are “green lighted” and funded without oversight, projects that were and are not in the best interests of the United States. Evidence thus far gives a strong indication that Raymond Davis was employed in such a capacity. Moreover, he was obviously ill suited for his task and is dangerously unstable. There is little question of this anymore.

There are several ways to look at this. The one I gravitate to is toward finding those who sent Davis to Pakistan in the first place, a highly dysfunctional combat veteran, exorbitantly paid and obviously answerable to an equally dysfunctional organization. Davis was a ticking time bomb. The proof of his phone contacts with Taliban terrorists who have been attacking, not just the Pakistani army but civilians, is well established. What kind of spy keeps “sim cards” in his pocket when arrested? Aren’t supposed to be swallowed?

Davis was arrested as a criminal, a murderer. Truth is, he is simply the one caught “holding the bag.” Davis, now held in custody, those said to be rushing to his aid, his “friends” who killed a cyclist and fled, were actually his.accomplices.

They have fled Pakistan and are being sequestered somewhere in the United States, protected from extradition. More like Davis are out there. Working with them are corrupt members of Pakistan’s government and police organizations, enticed by money, some of it from drug operations in Afghanistan.

DRUG POWER

The $65 billion a year in narcotics being exported from Afghanistan hasn’t just destabilized the region. Some of these drugs, formerly opium paste, not fully processed heroin produced with equipment and chemicals brought into Afghanistan by American businessmen with key political connections, are trucked into Russia and are slowly destroying that nation. Most, however, is being flown west, Europe, America mostly, flown from airports controlled by the United States, airports where no uninspected and unapproved cargo ever leaves.

If America’s divided “chain of command” was “confused” before, billions in drug money has left it devastated and has made some aspects of America’s security, intelligence and special operations capabilities analogous with organized crime.

America’s “special operation commands” are a hodgepodge of duchies, some answerable to traditional command and control and some are not. Some may well have fallen under the influence of Afghanistan’s drug trade or the globalist cabal that is trying to take down Iran and Pakistan as part of the globalist agenda oft spoken of by Council on Foreign Relations Director Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Terrorist operations by Americans inside Pakistan, operations against Pakistan itself, under the “cover” of “counter-terrorism” would be part of that agenda. That agenda is real. That agenda is “front burner” in Washington, New Delhi, Tel Aviv and Zurich. Davis is little more than a tiny “cog” in that agenda, a tiny cog that unhinged and may well take the entire mechanism down.

IMRAN KHAN, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE

About a year ago, Veterans Today staffers, Jeff Gates, Raja Mujtaba and I spent a long evening with Pakistan’s reformist political leader and world famous cricketer, Imran Khan. The discussion was “no holds barred,” very much so, and Jeff and I were in clear agreement. We left the meeting with the basis for a friendship in place, but there was more. This was the only man we know of who could bridge the gap, not just between Christians, Jews and Islam but provide a voice Americans would respect.

Khan is the most trusted political leader in Pakistan though he has little real power. The military accepts him, the majority of people admire him and, eventually, he is destined to lead Pakistan. Were an “Imran Khan” on the scene in Libya or Egypt, he is the type of leader the people would be turning to. I saw in him what I estimate to be a perfect mix of anger at injustice and human decency, a man who can be trusted but not controlled.

This is also a man with a very international voice, someone quickly recognizable as a consensus builder. This is the man we need today.

Imran Khan has met with the families of the dead in Pakistan. Cynics cite this as a political “photo op.” What it does is establish his standing, with the families, families that have been pressured, threatened and even attacked. The young wife of one of the dead killed herself in protest because of these threats.

Has the pressure on the families, confirmed threats and now unconfirmed reports of an attempt to murder one of the family members, been orchestrated by a criminal organization with direct ties to Raymond Davis? When Americans think about the Central Intelligence Agency, do they think of an organization that hires armed thugs to victimize family members of crime victims.If we accept that Davis was legitimately CIA, then we accept that those acts done to support him, acts that can only be described as “gangsterism” are CIA also? Are we describing a terrorist organization instead?

DR. AAFIA, IMRAN KHAN AND THE ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS MESS

Dr. Aafia was sentenced, last year, to 87 years in prison for attempting to kill Americans holding her prisoner in Afghanistan. Aafia, wife of a Boston anesthesiologist, mother of two (kidnapped with her and believed dead) has a doctorate in micro-biology from MIT. While visiting Pakistan with her children, she was taken off the street with her children and thrown into a van. Five years later, she turned up in Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan in a CIA secret prison, 85 pounds, wheel chair bound, her children dead, held and tortured for years for what was believed her part in Iraq’s attempts to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger.

However, it had been discovered that the story of the yellowcake uranium had been a fabrication. Aafia had been held and tortured in attempts to restore the reputation of Dick Cheney, “Scooter” Libby and Karl Rove, who had been involved in “outing” CIA agent Valerie Plame. Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson, had proven the “yellowcake” fantasy to be just that and the Bush administration was lashing out in humiliation.

Dr. Aafia refused to confess to this fantasy and was tortured and raped for 5 years.Eventually, Aafia was charged with a crime and brought to the United States for trial. Her trial was one of the most shameful events in American history, utterly ludicrous.

Millions in Pakistan, from the highest military and intelligence leaders, long time friends and allies of the United States, to the poorest of the poor have united to see her freed. Americans, as they become aware of her fate, are joining in.

She stand convicted, a political convenience for the Bush administration, an abuse of every moral law.

Unless she is freed and allowed to search for her children, if they are still alive, there will be no way out for Raymond Davis who will be hanged, that is certain, hanged or Pakistan will fall and the Taliban may well control a nuclear arsenal.

Was this the game in the first place, putting nuclear weapons in the hands of the Taliban? Pakistan, a nation whose nuclear arsenal has been more secure than America’s as we learned in 2007 when warheads disappeared from Minot Air Force Base and were recovered on their way to “parts unknown” in the belly of an errant B-52, has long been accused. There is evidence that military contractors like Davis have, in the past, planned attacks on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons storage facilities, dressed as “Taliban.” Were they attempting to steal nuclear weapons? For what purpose?

THE DEAL

Dr. Aafia deserves freedom. She is held for one reason only, the vanity and debasement of Dick Cheney.

Raymond Davis may well be guilty of murder, spying and even terrorism or guilty of nothing at all. A legal process, as we are now proceeding, will decide this, one likely to be much fairer than the one that Dr. Aafia was subjected to in the United States.

Davis is very likely to be convicted and sentenced to death.

We can’t bring any of the dead back to life. There are more than the few we are dealing with here today. The dead have mounted up since 2001, first 3000 Americans on 9/11 and now millions, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, grieving families in homes around the world, America, Canada, Germany, Britain, Poland and throughout the Middle East. More are dying today in Libya.

All of these deaths are related.

If Pakistan explodes like Egypt, like Tunisia, like Libya, it does more than put nuclear weapons in play. A cascade effect, spreading across Central Asia and the Caspian basin, as predicted by Brzezinski, could become a reality with startling consequences.

Quelling the anger the people of Pakistan currently harbor against the United States over the Davis affair is critical to stability in the region.

The only way out is for there to be a trade, Dr. Aafia for Raymond Davis. There is only one person with the credibility to sell this deal to the people of Pakistan, a deal that may well require “sweetening” with more than the return of Aafia.

The trust between America and Pakistan has to be restored as well, a trust that, though Pakistan is the injured party in this instance, needs to be reestablished in America as well.

There is no person on the scene today but Imran Khan with the credibility and moral authority.